watkins



(No Model.)

P. C. WATKINS.

KEOTOEHOEE EEGEIVEE.

,378. Patented Sept. 6, 1887.

N. PETERS. Pnowmhgmphen washinsm. n. c.

IINTTEPD STATES PATENT einen..

FRANK. C. VATKINS, OF THILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE UNITED STATES KBOTOPHONE COMPANY,

OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

KROTOPHON-RECEIVER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 369,378. dated September 6, i887.

Application tiled December 524, 1856. Serial No. 222,474.

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK. C. VATKINS, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Phila-- delphia, .iu the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Krotophone- Receivers; and I do declare the following to hea full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in 1o the art to which it appertains to make and use.

the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and gures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification. My invention has relation to apparatus for reproducing articulate sounds through the medium of crepitations or minute crackling sounds or detonations, whereby the original disturbances in the transmitter, when transinitted over the line-wire, may be reproduced 1n a receiver without the aid or use of inagnets, diaphragme, helices, secondary currents, or induction-coils, or the use of any vibrating material whatever;- and to these ends the nov- 2 5 elty consists in the method of and apparatus for reproducing and receiving` the human voice or other articulate sounds through the medium of a series of crepitations or intermitting crackling detonations, as will be hereinafter more 3o fully set forth.

The present application is an improvement upon the United States Patent No. 345,084, granted July 6, A. D. 1886, to which reference .1s made for a fuller description ofthe principleand operation of this forni of recelver.

In the accompanying drawings the same letters of reference indicate the same parts of the invention, in which- Figure I is a longitudinal section of one forni of apparatus employed to carry out my method of reproducing sound, and Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the saine on the line w m of Fig. l.

'i5 Ais an ordinary hard-rnbher case, and B is a carbon or other electrically-conducting disk suitably secured in the case, so that its pe- (No model.)

riphery will forni `an electric contact with a series of connections, a a c, which are joined together by a wire, b, forming a continuation 5o ofthe line-wires b.

C is a conical metallic cup, provided with integral ears or lugs c, having each a hole, through which a continuous wire, e, passes. One end of this wire e is secured to a tensionscrew, E, which passes through a. nut, E', suitably secured in the case. The wire then passes through one oi' the lugs c, thence around a rigid pin, d, through another of the lugs, c, around a pin, d', through a lug, c, and thence back to the starting-point on the screw E. The screw is then set up until considerable tension is produced on the wire which suspends the cup with reference to the disk in the position shown in Fig. l. This cup is in electrica-l connection with the second iinewire, Lf, through the tension-wires c to the pin d, and from the interior of the cup C t-he current passes through one or more small carbon spheres, t', to the disk B. It will thus be seen 7c that the transmitted current from the line is conducted to a given point, which is one of the carbon spheres, and from thence to the center of the disk, where it is radially dispersed, as is fully set fort-h in the patent above 7 referred to.

I have found that the distinctncss and annplitude of the sounds are best when the cupsupporting wire c has a considerable degree of tension, and this eifect is very materially 8o Varied by increasing or diminishing the tension on said wire; but I consider the method of conducting the current to the carbon sphere and from the sphere to the disk the most important feature of the present invention, for in the krotophone-receiver referred to above the instrument requires adj ustnient from time to time, owing to the disintegration constantly going on between the point of the pencil and the disk, while in my present invention this 9o disintegration is compensated for by the sphere automatically adjusting itself by gravity and always preserving its relative position with reference to the disk. Of course it will be understood that the disk-current from the two or more movableconducting-spheres,with 1o transmitter is conducted to, and directly to, :L conducting-disk having a circumferential the disk, and thence direct to the ground. connection, as set forth.

Having thus fully described my invention7 In testimony whereof I afx my signature in 5 what I claim as new and useful, and desire to presence of two witnesses.

secure by Letters Patent of the United States, FRANK. C. VATKINS.

js-q Witnesses:

Ihe combination, in a krotophone-reeeiver, H. J. ENNIS,

' of a suspended conductingoup provided with J. MONAMEE. 

